Members Are the Heart of the ISSCR. Next Gen Scientists Are Its Future.
As Kym Kilbourne and I continue to learn more about the work and vision of our volunteer leaders, this month we had the privilege to connect with the chair and vice chair of the Membership and International Outreach Committee (MIOC), Ole Pless and Athanasia D. Panopoulos and the chair and vice chair of the Early Career Advisory Committee Evan Graham and Alessandro Bertero. At the core of our Society are our members, our commitment to create an enriching environment for the next generation of scientists and to embrace the internationality of our community. We have witnessed how this has in turn generated critical opportunities for scientific exchange and collaboration. It was inspiring to hear about their work and how they comprise the fabric of the ISSCR. I will start with the MIOC.
Q: What are the most important initiatives or projects the Membership and International Outreach Committee is working on?
AP: The MIOC has decided to have three subgroups with different overarching goals. One is addressing the need to translate ISSCR materials including the Patient Guide to ensure the public across the globe has accurate information. The other two involve building on and expanding our ISSCR community. These include promoting awareness to the existing members about the benefits of being in ISSCR, as well as looking for opportunities to expand those benefits. This will also help us grow membership across the international community. For example, in a survey we did with the Early Career Advisory Committee (ECAC) members, we learned that there is a need for more platforms for existing members to talk with each other. We are looking at ways we might help do this.
OP/AP: Yes, like expanding the ISSCR local concept that ECAC is helping to encourage and promote in partnership with them. Critical mass may not always be present locally for an in-person event, but virtually we could overcome and expand the radius beyond geography.
OP: One thing close to our heart is the translation of ISSCR’s core documents such as the Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation. We received some funding in Germany to translate the 2021 update to the Guidelines and learned it is more difficult than it sounds. We even thought we might give up at some point. In the end the lesson was that it would be too difficult to see this process work with every language – it is too tedious and requires too many resources. That led the committee to develop an automated process driven by AI and to refine how the ISSCR may support groups that would like to pursue translations.
AP: We want people to understand that membership is not only attending the annual meeting. The ISSCR offers a lot throughout the year, independent of the annual program as it establishes a global stem cell community.
OP: The travel awards that are determined by the MIOC have a substantial impact. I recall that we gave one of the awards to a scientist from Pakistan, which was so fantastic because she could get the support to attend the meeting and present her excellent and exciting science. The Society could make even more meaningful investments like this with members.
Q: Can you share more about the talent and background of members on the committee and how the composition of members contributes to the committee’s work and effectiveness?
OP: I joined the committee in 2017 and have seen the travel award selection over time and, in terms of representation in the committee, from a diversity of countries and gender we have a very balanced composition where different voices are being expressed. We think a lot about the impact and the fairness with which travel awards are given.
AP: I agree. I have been on the committee for many years. We have improved how we work to ensure representation on the committee. It is something that we think about. For example, for the first time since being on the committee we have a member from South Africa who really opened our eyes about something that we were unaware of in terms of the criteria to qualify for lower rates for ISSCR membership and events. This is an example of how critical it is to have people from all parts of the world that can help us understand, for example, the metrics that we should use.
Q: What drives you to invest in/give so much of your time and talent to the ISSCR and the work of the committee? Describe the value you see in this volunteer work?
OP: The ISSCR has given me so much since I started out. By chance I bumped onto ISSCR – I was embraced in 2015 at a meeting in Stockholm and that was my gateway as a regional meeting that was easy to attend with a travel grant. Even though I didn’t have a single paper on stem cells, the way everyone embraced me has done so much for my professional development, and I want to give back for the benefit of the Society.
AP: I second that. My research spans multiple fields, but it is the stem cell community that I have the strongest connection to because they made me feel this way. The impact is so global, and I feel a responsibility to contribute, to train the next generation, to share accurate information to the public.
AP and OP: Now more than ever [shared in unison].
OP: It is a constant struggle to share information – the true information – bringing us together. We are building the community to make sure it is international, because the impact is international.
Membership and International Outreach Committee: Chair, Ole Pless, Vice Chair, Athanasia D. Panopoulos, Nissim Benvenisty, Andrea Ditadi, Mubeen Goolam, Akitsu Hotta, Lijian Hui, Madeline A. Lancaster, Rebecca Matsas, Sarah E. Millar, Verónica Alejandra Palma, Lygia Da Veiga Pereira, Eugenia Piddini, Nika Shakiba, Jihwan Song, Shahragim Tajbakhsh, Su-Yi Tsai
In learning from my colleagues, I am struck by two things: their reflections on how the composition of their committee is critical to their mission and the incredible impact that travel awards have made on members of the Society. I also found the collaborations across committees, such as the one between the MIOC with the Early Career Advisory Committee (ECAC) members, to be powerful. They demonstrate a focus on the diverse needs of scientists across a variety of different careers, which is critical to create a vibrant ecosystem that advances regenerative biology and medicine. For this reason, it was extremely meaningful to me to pair the MIOC and the ECAC together in one message this month, and I look forward to sharing more about the priorities of the ECAC and how they are creating a culture of belonging.
Q: What are the most important initiatives or projects the Early Career Advisory Committee is working on?
AB: We are expanding the remit of the committee and creating subcommittees that look at different areas of focus for the committee. Maybe we have bitten off more than we can chew! But we are looking at making our activities less siloed. ISSCR local networking events are something we want to promote after a pilot that was successful, and we showed it is scalable. We are discussing accessibility and socioeconomic forces that impede travel, so virtual connections are important.
EG: Sustainability and accessibility are significant, which is a big advantage of ISSCR local events. This is another way to welcome people to build connections beyond the annual meeting, which may represent roadblocks to getting together. Another initiative is setting up and formalizing the frameworks of the committee and determining what we will be able to do in the future. The Early Career group may have been a task force in the (recent) past because it did not have a clear remit, which provided an inspiration to clarify and create roots.
AB: A social dimension is very important to this committee. People need communities and a safe place to gather. A digital space where interactions are possible creating a community that is more online.
EG: One of the most important and long-standing initiatives driven by the ECAC is planning the ECAC Career Panel. This panel discussion takes place at the ISSCR Annual Meeting each year and is an opportunity for early career scientists and professionals to gain exposure to diverse career paths and lived experiences, within and outside the traditional academic trajectory. Along the same lines, this year the ECAC is also planning early career webinars. The primary goal of this webinar series, similar to the Career Panel Discussion, will be to discuss topics relevant to folks early on in their career, but because it will be web-based it will be available to anyone around the world. Having an online presence provides access to folks who may not be able to attend the Annual Meeting but who, of course, still deserve to benefit from the collective knowledge contained within the ISSCR membership pool.
The ECAC is interested in having more of a presence at the ISSCR International Symposia. This is again an effort to engage with early-career folks who may not be able to attend the annual meeting. Whether this engagement takes the form of scheduled meet-ups during the conferences, chances for early career folks to meet with the speakers, sponsored dinners, informal hangouts, or something completely different still remains to be defined, but the ideation process is underway.
Q: Can you share more about the talent and background of members on the committee and how the composition of members contributes to the committee’s work and effectiveness?
AB: People reach out to us, and this is how we find people. So, it is really volunteer based. This year we had more people than spots on the committee. That allowed us to consider our distributions across various dimensions (i.e., professional roles, career stage, gender, etc.). We are thinking of having a staggered approach to joining and sunsetting from the committee to avoid losing institutional memory.
EG: In other committees you choose people based on expertise. So, we are choosing people who are passionate about contributing, about moving the needle, about making voices heard. The real talent and expertise of our group is about the mission.
Q: Describe how the committee’s work is helping to advance the field or create opportunities for stem cell research to grow and thrive?
EG: A traditional career in academia has been a primary focus, but we think there are so many different paths after a PhD. Exposing the younger generation to those paths to help the field grow is important because there are so many opportunities that often are overlooked because people do not realize they are qualified. We want to help people grow in many ways, so the committee also helps with mentoring of people in the committee. This mentorship opportunity is another way we are helping the field grow.
AB: We are working also with the MIOC to bring the benefits out to the members and make them part of our community. Coming to the annual conference and finding a community and connecting them can help us to grow together by shattering the glass that separates more well-resourced areas of the world with other areas that are not as represented in the field. The drive is there, the competence is there, but unless we actively express and connect those in areas less represented in stem cell science, they may not know they have a place in our community.
Q: What drives you to invest in/give so much of your time and talent to the ISSCR and the work of the committee? Describe the value you see in this volunteer work?
AB: The ISSCR was the first scientific society I joined and the one I will always stay with. Even though there are lots of different scientific areas, I feel we have common systems, questions, etc. I am excited about the future opportunities for ISSCR members to contribute to emerging stem cell applications also outside of the medical field, such as cellular agriculture, which motivates me to bring this voice to the table on behalf of the many young scientists that are looking to chart their future in our rapidly changing world. We are a Society that has done a lot of good work in advocacy and policy. I want to be part of this to have an impact, however small that may be. The global impact ISSCR is providing with their driving direction is what makes me commit.
EG: There are other societies I am member of, but this is the society to which I want to devote my time because I believe in the mission, and I believe in the leadership. My commitment to the specific committee stems from my own experience. I think good minds are pushed away from scientific fields and even specific professional contexts despite being talented as people in leadership are not trained or incentivized to invest in the future of all scientists within the organization. I want to dedicate time to a Society that is serious to do some good.
EG: Additionally, the work of this committee is completely aligned with ISSCR's commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The work we do to help build and bolster the stem cell community, locally as well as globally, is one of many efforts to demonstrate the benefits of a diverse community. Bringing people from different backgrounds together can spark new, innovative ideas. While the focus of the ECAC may be primarily targeted towards early career scientists and professionals, hopefully, by our example, other groups will see how a genuine celebration of differences and a commitment to acceptance and psychological safety fosters a stronger community capable of much more effective scientific innovation.
Early Career Advisory Committee: Chair, Evan Graham, Vice Chair, Alessandro Bertero, Shuibing Chen, Nikolas Dresch Ferreira, Elisa Giacomelli, Kelvin K. Hui, Thomas Hutschalik, Ran Jing, Olivia Majhi, Graziano Martello, Thulaj Meharwade, Anjie Ni, Amelia Semenak, Hilary Toh
I think the points brought up by the ECAC are fundamentally important to our capacity to move forward as a united and nourished ISSCR community. We depend on each other’s differences in roles and identities – both. If the structures and systems we belong to do not understand and celebrate these differences, we will not be able to thrive in the stem cell and regenerative field as we hope to. I feel tremendously grateful for the leadership of these volunteers and the directionality they offer to me and the rest of us.
Valentina